II.Announcements

Earle Reybold announced that she is stepping down from the
Faculty Senate and Executive Committee.She encouraged the Senate to consider finding ways for faculty who wish
to participate on a regular basis, and the need for reasonable accommodations. Ruth Townsend (Associate Director/ADA
Coordinator, Equity and Diversity Services) deals with faculty
disabilities.It is important to Earle to
be active in service as a faculty member. Voting issues for Senators in remote
locations need to be addressed. The Executive Committee acknowledged the need
to address these issues in the future, and to examine voting from remote locations
in longer range plans.

Provost Stearns noted that Songdo seems to be moving
along.Two assurances requested
previously by the Faculty Senate regarding financial arrangements have been
provided.

The Faculty Senate and GMU AAUP Chapter will host a
reception for the BOV on January 30th following the BOV Meeting.

A.Academic
Policies – Suzanne Scott, Chair

(With thanks to Suzanne Scott for reviewing
and editing this report.)

Catalog
Revisions on Residency Requirements: Following the Senate
meeting (November 6, 2012, in which Charlene Douglas requested a friendly
amendment to the proposal for revisions to residency requirements, the
committee agreed to work with Charlene Douglas to incorporate her requests. She
submitted a letter to our committee with the request that we not make any
changes at all. The committee subsequently agreed not to pursue changes,
especially since we were unsure where the request originated. We believe that
the original request came from the Registrar’s Office with the implication that
it was inspired by a need from the School of Nursing. Dr. Douglas indicated
that the changes would harm the School of Nursing in terms of
enrollments. The AP Committee and the Faculty Senate spent a lot of time
on this issue without proper background; concern was expressed about spinning
wheels working on issues and then withdrawing suggestion of change.

Discussion: To ask O&O where the issue came from
and to inform the Registrar’s Office that a change will not be made. The
committee needs to be sure who is making the requests and perhaps who benefits
(or not) from the changes. Chair Tangney thanked the AP Committee for all
its efforts on this issue.Summer Schedule: Drop /Add period
compared with fall/spring semesters. Cathy Evans (Director, Special
Projects & Summer Term, Provost's Office) reported they had met and decided
they could not change it because it was unfair to night classes. They
don’t have that many students adding, to reduce time could limit students
adding, more drops than adds.
Discussion: The summer school system encourages early sign-up and then
later drops for those students who may not know their final grades until right
before summer school starts. Why does the Faculty Senate have to approve
the academic year calendar but not the summer school calendar?
(references to % of days in sessions A, B, C) Faculty do not have to
allow a student who added late to make up work missed. We will invite
Cathy Evans to the next Executive Committee meeting to answer questions.

Proposal to exchange
Columbus Day holiday with Election Day:The AP Committee discussed this issue and will poll their own
faculty.Faculty may not like this as it
is a long weekend.In support of the
proposal, Senator Dave Kuebrich noted this would make it easier for students
and faculty to vote; promotes citizenship to our students.We will provide information for the November
28th agenda, not an action item.

An earlier issue in which a student did not receive a good grade
in an elective course taken for pure pleasure, and was upset included in GPA. Discussion:Audit mechanism exists; the Faculty Senate is
a policy body, and does not respond to individual complaints; questions whether
O&O should have sent this to the AP Committee in the beginning.

B.Budget
and Resources – Susan Trencher, Chair

(With thanks to Susan Trencher for reviewing
and editing this report.)

Independent Study Survey – data collected, will check on progress.

Survey of College Policies for Extramural Grants:The B&R committee met to discuss how
best to gather information about the ways in which extramural funds are treated
in different units (at college or school level). Members of the
committee, who themselves represent several different units, shared knowledge
about practices in their colleges, which all differed from each other. Matt
Zingraff, Associate Dean for Research and Interim VP for Research and Economic
Development will meet with the committee prior to the next Faculty Senate
Meeting.

Summer School Funding
News:Cathy Evans who manages the summer school program at the
Provost's level suggested that the preferred model for summer school was that
followed by SPP, which has gone to a 12 month grid. This would entail a
12 month university in which faculty could choose which of the three time units
(Fall, Spring, Summer) in which they wanted to teach. This process seems
to be completely divorced from material in the Faculty Handbook regarding
summer school and faculty teaching in that time frame. The Provost said no one
would be forced into this model, and there are many questions that remained in
ensuing discussion. Further review of this model would include a study by
B&R on financial implications for the university, units, and faculty.

C.Faculty
Matters – Jim Sanford, Chair

We will meet the week after Thanksgiving to work on
revisions to the Faculty Evaluation of Administrators questions.

D.Nominations – Jim Bennett, Chair

Faculty Representatives to the BOV Research and Development
Committees – election results to be announced this week.

E.Organization
and Operations – no
report.

IV.Other Committees/Faculty Representatives

Faculty
Handbook Revision Committee

Chair Tangney reported
that she recently had breakfast with Rector Clemente.He wants to set up an ad hoc committee to
review the Faculty Handbook.Two items
are time sensitive:the BOV wants to get
out of P&T, including review of how other Faculty Handbooks deal with issue,
andSection 1.2.5 Faculty Participation in Selection of Certain Members of
the Central Administration

In a general discussion, it was decided not to present
second revision for a vote until after December BOV meeting.Concern was expressed about delay for two
time-sensitive items.Several EXC
members expressed concern that faculty who are appointed, not elected by
faculty,are not representatives of
the faculty.Need for willingness of
faculty nominees to serve, instead of being called upon by the provost
office.

FS Task Force to
Examine Agreements Between GMU and Private Donors – Dave Kuebrich, Chair:The report will not be ready for
inclusion on the November 28th agenda.The issue is a thousand times more
complicated, not a lot of information out there and hard to get information, as
agreements by law are not transparent.There needs to be a strong conflict-of-interest policy from the
president on down.We have asked the
Virginia ACLU for input, no response to date.Issues include public policy centers engaging in advocacy at public
universities, such as pharmaceutical supply companies and scientific research.He also encouraged Faculty Senate involvement in educational effort on the crucial issue of
corporate funding in higher education, to include a series of special meetings
and invite guest speakersJennifer
Washburn – who has done research on corporate influence on universities, and
the former president of AAUP, who has
written more and about how universities are adopting corporate policies.

V.Agenda Items for November 28, 2012 Faculty Senate Meeting

VI.New Business, Updates, and Discussion

Presentation from Keith Segerson, Associate VP for Economic
Development on the Mason Enterprise Center and Mason’s Office of Economic Development
at a future FS meeting:After some
discussion, it was decided to ask him for a description first before inviting
him to a future Senate meeting.

After some discussion, it was decided to ask Walt Sevon for
point-of-contact information on the Email Migration System.

A brief discussion about suggested nominees to replace outgoing Faculty Senate
Secretary Earle Reybold and the reallocation of the Spring 2013 course release
she decided not to use took place.

We will discuss Amendment to Charter/By-Laws regarding
voting from remote at next Executive Committee meeting (January 28, 2013).